Womb
My solitary cell closes in,
Its scarlet walls ominous, but pillars
Wrought in flesh guard, soft, safe and
Unyielding. The chord of life binds,
Tugs me hard, as balloon towed
In a coop of red, constrained.
Weeks ago, I crouched as
Invertebrate, as invalid, as parasite
Feeding off my tube. Now limbs mushroom,
Stretching pliant barriers, sucking
Liquid rust I grow, too large today
For my home modest, shrunk and old.
Yet I float sated,
In my abyss, like fish in a pond.
No lights, no sounds or smells abound
Save for berceuse trapped, thumping
My bubble’s walls, melody immured
Forever, captive just as me.
The instant of doom comes calling once
I am bloated, comatose. Fingers, toes
And head bulbous, I drift upturned
To purgatory unknown. My crimson
Paradise squeezes, evicts me as
Contagion, pest unwelcome, soon begone.
Banished from sanctum familiar, now
Alien and cold, I slip down the rabbit hole,
Down the tunnel, sluiced in tendrils red.
As mannequin unarmed, I succumb
To phantom forces hauling
My body distended, to eulogy’s crescendo.
Dawning flash hurts my eyes, fingers prod
In a sterile hell. Creatures of apathy,
Masked demons surround, pass me along,
Uncaring and cruel. Chord that nourished
Hangs lifeless snipped, my companion,
The hollow serpent beckons corpse-like, still.
Swathed in cocoon not tender to be
As solemn cradle of past, I surrender
To fate, to chaos in death. But as a blurry face
Looks down and smiles, I hear the sweetest
Thump, the thump of calm in her chest
Perhaps of home abandoned, found again.
© Arati Nair 2022
